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Friday Forecast Update
Posted Friday 05/22/26 @ 9:50 AM — We’ve had some breaks in the clouds and bright spots this morning as most models predicted last night. The RRFS, HRRR and NAM-NEST continue to forecast some breaks of sun on either side of noon time today near the city and areas north. Areas south of the city in southern Chester and Delaware counties will have the most cloudiness today.
As for the rain, as much as I’d like to use the new RRFS, the NAM-NEST seems to have the best match with current conditions. That translates into dry conditions for most of the day, although it does have rain creeping into southern Chester County and Delaware County by 4 PM.
As for the Phillies game at 6:40 PM, the same NAM-NEST is the most pessimistic, with some rain moving into the city.
The latest HRRR, RRFS and Canadian HRDPS keep this rain to our south during the game with just light sprinkles at most. Based on current match, I’m leaning unfortunately towards the wetter NAM-NEST.
The weekend continues to look wet, as it has for much of this week. But the fine details will make a difference in how good or bad this weekend’s weather will be. My regular Weekend Weather forecast follows later this afternoon or early evening.
Friday & Weekend Outlook
Originally Posted Thu 6:37 PM —The general trend for Friday has been for it to be dry with significant cloudiness, but with some bright spots especially around noontime into early afternoon. Northern suburbs will likely see less cloudiness and even some sunshine on Friday.
Most of the afternoon models (18z) have this as their forecast. Of interest is the 18z RRFS (the RRFS, our newest model, is often surprisingly good at forecasting cloud cover.)
The RRFS model has much more cloudiness, extending even further north. It also maintains the chance of some very light showers in the mid afternoon. Definitely an outlier, but it shouldn’t be ignored.
For now, we’ll go with the other more optimistic models for now.
The Memorial Day Weekend looks to be disturbingly cold, wet and cloudy. A stream of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico along with a stalled frontal boundary that will focus the rainfall right over us.
Saturday and Saturday night look to be quite wet, with potentially heavy rain.
The rain looks to last into Sunday morning, then dark low clouds for the rest of Sunday.
Monday looks to be very cloudy with a chance of widely scattered light showers, especially in NJ.
